Rome: As controversy mounted on the alleged cover-up of Roman nudes ahead of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to Rome, Iran has issued clarification that it did not make any specific requests in that regard, but added that he nevertheless appreciated the welcome he received.
Rouhani laughed when asked at the end of a three-day visit to Italy about the statue cover-up, which made headlines in Italy and around the world. Some Italian politicians decried the "cultural submission" implied in Italy's gesture.
Rouhani said Iran made no specific request for the cover-up, saying there were "no contacts about this" from the Iranian side.
But he added: "I know that Italians are a very hospitable people, a people who try to do the most to put their guests at ease and I thank you for this."
The decision by Italian officials to cover up ancient nude statues to not offend Iran's visiting president has triggered widespread outrage in Rome.
Ahead of a news conference Monday with Premier Matteo Renzi and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, wooden panels were erected around some Roman statues in Rome's Capitoline Museums.
Wooden panels cover statues inside the Rome's Capitoline Museums. (Photo: AP)
When images of the cover-up made the Italian media Tuesday, politicians from across the spectrum decried and derided the decision.
The museum said Tuesday that the premier's office wanted the statues along Rouhani's path to the news conference covered up. Renzi's office declined to comment.
Renzi and Rouhani spoke in a room featuring the famed bronze statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, fully clothed.
Among those heaping criticism on Renzi Tuesday was politician Gianluca Peciola, from the far-left SEL party, who announced a petition drive to demand that the premier explain a choice it considers "a shame and mortification for art and culture understood as universal concepts."
On the far-right, Brothers of Italy party leader Giorgia Meloni said that the "level of cultural submission" by Renzi "has surpassed every limit of decency." She recalled what for many was a dismaying precedent - the draping of a modern nude statue when the crown prince of United Arab Emirates visited Palazzo Vecchio, the city hall in Renzi's home region.
During this week's meeting in Rome, Renzi and Rouhani committed to strengthening cultural ties. The premier's office noted that Rome's MAXXI museum is interested in putting on a show of works from Tehran's museum of contemporary art.
After Rome, Rouhani heads to Paris. Last fall, an unsourced French radio report said the Iranian leader had canceled a lunch at the French presidential palace because the palace refused to offer a halal menu without wine. The palace insisted such a lunch had never been planned.
That European trip was scratched after the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris.
Rouhani's schedule for this trip includes no meals with French officialdom.
